Alpha Information! Private alpha testing with players is currently in a very limited early form, and we will be adding more players throughout the coming weeks leading up to release. If you're interested in signing up, please see this forum post. Right now we do have open spots still, but we may wind up needing to close signup past a certain point, because we definitely have a pretty huge list of people at this point (and there's only so much feedback we can process at any given time).

The Last Federation is an upcoming Grand Strategy + RTS Tactics game from Arcen Games. You play as a small mercenary fleet in a solar system teeming with eight alien races of various dispositions. Your goal is to unify the survivors into a solar federation that will bring peace. Doing so requires a lot of fighting, a lot of political deals and backstabbing, and occasionally strapping rockets to a moon.

This is the intro video to the game -- it gives you the background info on why you are doing what you are doing. Recently we did also put up a video of an alpha version of combat, and we'll have more gameplay videos coming up this week, as well.

Enjoy!

Logged

Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

You might be better off without some of the animation effects, though (or might want to improve them).I kinda "stumbled" over some of them (visually speaking) while watching the video in terms of quality .

Also, for a real intro the video might be a tad too long. Maybe you might chop it down into parts and reveal the mid pieces of the backstory at strategic moments while the game is ongoing? Just an idea...

I am the last of the Hydrals. One of the oldest races in the solar system, we were first to the stars.However, we were selfish and predatory -- eager to retain the advantage we had won.For centuries, we shot down all manned launches from eight rival planets. No one was to join us in the black ocean around our star.

Spy probes arrived every now and then. We knew the others were watching us, but we didn’t much care.They could launch satellites and probes, yes. But anything larger was bombed into oblivion.How they must have hated us. But we felt we were wise. For one reason or another, each race was an unsuitable companion.

The Burlusts were at constant war, empires rising and falling. We could not allow them to threaten us.The Andors constructed a peaceful robotic utopia, and our governors reasoned that it was no hardship to keep them where they were.And the Peltians -- communal agrarians. Weak, like animals. They had no business with us.The Skylaxians were intelligent and honorable -- far too much so. Their opinion of us was clear, so they had to be suppressed.The Thoraxians are something out of a nightmare. No one in their right mind would risk an invasion by them.The list goes on. You have the Boarines, solitary and territorial. Not a good idea.Or the Acutians. Cold, robotic capitalists? Absolutely not.

And last there were the Evucks. Quiet, studious, kept to themselves. They never even tried a manned mission. We paid little attention to them.If we had, we would have seen them learn sciences far beyond our own. We would have seen our death.

You see, we Hydrals were born on a world of oceans. But as the number of Evuck probes increased, we started to notice a change.Oh yes, we noticed. Our population fell from 40 billion to only a few thousand.With our planet dying, we began gearing up for conquest and retribution.

I had a different idea -- one I knew my countrymen would never accept. The time was well past for the other races to join us in the stars.They were already close enough on their own. At this point, an interplanetary federation was the only path to peace.As the time for war approached, I came to a decision. I filled a pod with technical documents and escaped.

Just in time. We were so distracted with ourselves that we didn’t see the Acutians strap rockets to a moon.All our ships had been recalled to defend against further probes, and to aid in the ongoing evacuations. Everything we Hydrals had ever built was gone in an instant.

The sole surviving ship, so far as I know, was mine. Damaged by the blast, my pod barely made it to the nearest planet.The technology I had brought in gift was forcibly taken. I was left in captivity.I wasn’t a prisoner; I was waiting. Never having met a Hydral, they had no idea of my strength.

I will unite this solar system. I have no intentions of being a leader. I won’t even be the power behind the throne.I am a nameless mercenary now. But I will leave a legacy to stand the test of time.

Logged

Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Oh yes, there will be a gameplay trailer. This isn't really a true trailer, it's just the story intro, and it also works as a teaser video of sorts, too, to explain the background of your character and the world. Jeff -- khadgar from the forums here -- did the voice acting. He was the guy behind all the robots and the military commander in Bionic Dues, too.

Along with the gameplay trailer, I also plan to have more just kind of semi-uncut narrated gameplay videos that are longer, which people can use to help decide if they like the look of this, etc.

Logged

Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

I liked it. Couple rough bits, but overall, shows off the art and unique races well and actually made me want to play the game. Definitely worth watching in 1080.

It's a unique idea for starting a 4X-type of game (yes I know this is not a 4X). Most strategy games set all civs on exactly equal footing with very little reason for why, this presents a pretty credible one, as well as setting up a fairly interesting role for the player to inhabit.

Wait, the Evucks dessicated the Hydral world and then the Acutians dropped a moon on it? That's a prima facie case for a retaliatory glassing of their planets if you ask me.

It depends on if you believe in "an eye for an eye." You would certainly be justified in doing that in some senses, but what about all the innocent citizens on those worlds? It's not like everyone was involved. But if you're feeling vengeful, it's certainly possible to engineer the death of almost any race, or even all of them except one, etc.

Logged

Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!